Liberation Day has brought out some very angry people, namely the older relatives in my family. Whatever their political alignments, if they had any kind of stock portfolio, they're seeing red. 'Trump has lost me so much money,' is the argument of choice now, as if our commander in chief has just committed financial seppuku on behalf of the American people. But there seems to be a visceral need to find any excuse to be mad, as in, they were waiting for this opportunity. This confirms all their fears, and fuels their anger, if colored through their lens of choice.
I grew up in a bipartisan household, where my father was at least in the traditional sense a Republican, and my mother a lifelong Democrat. Dad was a finances guy and my mother inherited his portfolio which has afforded her a life of comfort, and when paired with social security, moreso now that she is retired. It's an incredible blessing that, quite frankly, many of the boomer generation take for granted. Roth IRAs and 401ks are foreign concepts to many millenials, and certainly younger, who all have struggled to stay afloat on day to day costs. Retirement planning is essentially a pipe dream. But the silver lining has been the tariffs of Liberation Day, and I'll tell you why:
While the elders of our population decry the plunge, this has opened a window for younger Americans to actually begin to invest in their futures. Honestly, the selective outrage over this particular crash, per se, is laughable to me. We all knew that the economy would take a hit with tariffs, that there would be a painful transition but that we could come out better for it on the other end, bringing industry back to America and applying some reciprocity that other countries had taken full advantage of over the years. Why did we lower tariffs to China in the first place? To encourage free markets and the potential for democratic influence; see how well that turned out. Instead, we have the luxury of handing off our production to unethical labor practices overseas. If that means someone suffered financial loss due to the Orange Man and is now convinced this is hell freezing over, they are welcome to panic while others keep a steady head.
In the meantime, the mantra "Sell High Buy Low" plays perfectly into this moment. Notice that there has been no fluctuation in the buy or sell rates from Thursday; strong investors are not running for the hills to offload their worthless shares. In fact, most have played this hand well to buy up, because they KNOW there will be a recovery. The smartest of the younger generations are following suit, and for the very first time are able to secure portfolios which may do them far better in the future than crossing fingers and praying in vain that Social Security will be around when they need it.
The blight of tariffs is only offensive to those who have had an adulthood paved in gold, who fail to understand the struggles of their children and grandchildren, and, to put it bluntly, offend me with their lack of care for anything beyond their noses. I have zero sympathy for them and their faltering riches. The future belongs to us, and I am quite content to experience the hiccup that hard tariff negotiations bring.